X Factor winner 'dropped by Cowell'

X Factor winner James Arthur said he was concentrating on his music after reports that he had been dumped from Simon Cowell's record label for writing a song about terrorism.

The singer was reportedly dropped by Syco after it emerged his song Follow The Leader included the lyric " I'm gonna blow up your family like I'm a terrorist".

A spokeswoman for Syco declined to comment and Arthur took to Twitter to defend the song, which he insisted was " not promoting terrorism".

He said: " As far as I know, I am still with Syco but I am exclusively signed to Sony. People look too deeply into the media circus. It's about music."

It is the latest controversy for the star after a series of online blunders, including criticising his own publicity team for the messages they post on Twitter and temporarily leaving the social network after becoming embroiled in a homophobia row.

The singer, whose most recent single Get Down made it to just number 96 in the chart, said later of that incident that he was "disappointed in myself for being so naive".